Two Birmingham men dead after plane headed to Troy crashes in northern Michigan

BOYNE CITY, Mich. (AP) ó A small plane crashed after takeoff Monday in Michiganís northern Lower Peninsula, going down in a wooded area and killing two people onboard, authorities said.

The Detroit News is reporting the men were from Birmingham. MyFoxDetroit.com reports that family and friends confirm 51-year-old Todd Lloyd and his partner, 38-year-old Christopher Neumann, died in that crash.

The single-engine, fixed-wing Mooney M20R was headed from Boyne City Municipal Airport in Charlevoix County to Oakland-Troy Airport when it crashed, said Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

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Authorities didnít release the names of those who were killed, but the pilot was among the two. There were no reports of survivors.

Charlevoix County Undersheriff Chuck Vondra told the Petoskey News-Review that the plane was found broken into many pieces.

The plane was registered to Chair Covers Leasing, Inc. of Madison Heights, according to the FAA website.

There was no answer to phone calls Monday afternoon at the companyís office.

The newspaper and WPBN/WTOM-TV reported that it crashed about 7 a.m. Monday about 45 miles northeast of Traverse City. The wreckage was found several hundred yards from a road that was reachable on foot or by snowmobile.

Light snow was falling in the Charlevoix area shortly before 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. The temperature was about 10 degrees and ground visibility was just less than two miles, said Nick Schwartz, a meteorologist.

The FAA is investigating the crash, but the probe will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board, Molinaro added.